We arrived in Weipa on the western coast of Cape York peninsula on Saturday afternoon after travelling just on 400 km south from Bamaka n Loyalty Beach. We had a pretty good run through, a bit nostalgic as we passed the various turn offs to some great places that we've stayed at on our way up to the Cape. There was plenty of corrugation on our route as usual! Don't think I'll ever complain about Lismore roads again!! After getting to Weipa camping ground about 4ish we set up on our unpowered site overlooking the beach n settled in to enjoy a beautiful sunset that Weipa is famous for! And we we certainly weren't disappointed it was just beautiful! We ended up altering our 3 nite booking in a cabin to an extra camping night so we had 2 nights near the beach n 2 nights in a cabin! Believe it or not this was my suggestion, tells u how comfy our camper is n how well our camping experiences r going! Weipa is known 4 mining n fishing so 1st thing on Sunday we did a 2 n 1/2 hr tour of Weipa n the bauxite mine which is the lifeblood of this community. Hard to believe that Weipa on came into existence in the 1950's when a geologist named Evans came across viable bauxite mining prospects n the rest is history as the saying goes! Checking out the huge machinery n workings of the mine was also interesting n different from the rest of our holiday! Then after some reconnaissance by the Ch n Bill of suitable fishing spots they decided on fishing off the jetty n had lots of fun catching 6 Trevally n having a chat to some of the locals, especially one 'mama' who had the line fishing down pat, she had caught about 30 Trevally all by herself! Anne n I had a cruisy afternoon reading n having a swim at the camp pool. It's cruel that we r surrounded by such wonderful beaches but unable to swim up this way due to the 'snapping handbags' as croc's r affectionately called! It's also been fun meeting n chatting to travellers all along our journey, everyone has a story, amazing how many travellers r on an indefinite timeframe! Mon was a slower day, reading, cards n fishing off the wharf in the late afternoon, lots of fun, Anne was the only one to catch 3 Trevally, very exciting! We've been loving having fresh fish each night, last night I made a yummy green fish curry 4 us to share. Today we went for a drive up the west coast of the Cape to Mapoon, an great little Aboriginal community. We enjoyed checking out the beaches on both sides of the peninsula near there. Very pretty n some great camping spots, just not sure how they'd be on dusk with mozzies n sand flies...at the small camping ground n boat ramp we ran into a couple of the local Rangers, Gerry n Patrick. Gerry had lots of stories to share, he was a real character with a good sense of humour. Gerry was a big man, I'm guessing a combined heritage if Aboriginal n Torres Straight Islander. He even goes 4 the Blues in State of Origin just to stir his family up! It was also interesting to check out the site of Old Mapoon as well as a great memorial to mark the 1st landing of a European boat a Dutch one called Dyufkn in 1606. This goes against the Dirk Hartog history I leant as a primary school student...those same history lessons omitted to mention anything about how the Aboriginal people had been mistreated n displaced since European settlement. Hopefully our shared future is far more positive! This afternoon we r going to have another go at some fishing off the wharf. Our last night in Weipa before we head out on the road again!
Well we did go fishing and I caught 1 fish the only one for the afternoon. Charlie and I also checked out the local pub before fishing while Anne & Bill went to check out Pennyfarther Point. We then had drinks and a game of cards with a workmates of Bills and his wife who were travelling through Weipa. What a lovely couple of days it's been here. Off we go again this time to Merlina Station!
Paul, my brother's birthday is today so I called him to pass on our best wishes! All good there...